Look Before You Leap
by SanoGirl
Summary: Companion to "The Sky Is Falling!" and "The Boy Who Cried Demon". What happens when our two favorite demons go swimming in an old well on a hot summer's day and they get stuck?


Look Before You Leap

"Ooooooooh, I wonder what it is Hiei," the little fox said, leaning over the stone wall and reaching one chubby little hand down as if he could touch the shimmering water at its bottom.

Rolling his eyes, the short little fire demon replied, "It's obviously a swimming pool, you baka!"

Kurama scratched his ears and straightened up from his exploration of the well. "A swimming pool? This deep in the ground? Why would anyone do that?"

Once more, the two little troublemakers had found themselves bored on a hot summer's day. So while their mothers sat upon a bench, talking and drinking their water, the best friends had gone off to explore the farther regions of the park. Wandering around, they had finally come to a small grove of trees and, upon entering, had discovered an old well. Not knowing what it was, they had advanced to explore further and were now standing at its edge under a mixture of sun and shadows, arguing as to its purpose.

"Well, how would I know?!" Hiei asked, growing frustrated with his friend's silly questions. "All I know is it's hot and we've found a swimming pool." And while he was saying this, the little demon had clambered up onto the low stone wall and was preparing to jump in.

"Yay! Swimming!" Kurama cried and jumped up onto the wall too, throwing himself at Hiei and purposely knocking them both into the well.

The two landed on the bottom with a loud splash and a cry of outrage from Hiei. Jumping on Kurama, he tumbled and wrestled with the little fox in the shallow water. Shrieks and splashes soon ensued, and before long both of them were drenched.

Slurping some of the clear water, Kurama drank some and spat the rest in Hiei's face, giggling as the fire demon fell backwards in shock. Hiei quickly stood up however and ran over to his friend, spraying his own mouthful of water at him.

An hour or so later, two tired, chubby demons lay slumped together at the bottom of the well, worn-out. "I think it's time to go find our moms," Hiei said, standing up.

Kurama nodded and rose also, his tails dripping and making tiny plinking noises as the droplets rejoined the majority of the water. "The question is…how do we get out?"

Just then it dawned upon them. The walls leading up and out of the well were made of stones, worn smooth and slick by time and water. It was way too high up for them to jump and the rope and bucket that once allowed people to draw water had long since deteriorated. The two little pranksters looked at each other. "Uh-oh…" they moaned in unison.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Mommy, can I go play now?" Kuwabara whined, trying to yank his hand out of his mother's iron grip.

"Ok, fine, just watch out for dogs!" she called after him, chuckling and sitting down with Kurama and Hiei's mothers. She was soon pulled into their conversation.

Skipping happily along, Kuwabara searched around the playground for either of the two little demons. "That's funny…they're not here!" he said to himself, scratching fluffy orange curls. "Their mommies are here, but where did they go?"

He wandered forlornly down the dirt path, kicking at rocks until he caught the faint strains of shouting coming from some trees a little way off. Cocking his head quizzically to the side, he followed the sounds and upon entering the grove of trees saw a large stone circle in the middle. The shouts were coming from there.

"Mommy! Mommy! Where are you?!"

Poking his head over the side, Kuwabara smirked and laughed as he saw the two pudgy forms of his friends sitting at the bottom in a pool of water.

"Kuwabara!" Kurama exclaimed, jumping up and down. "Check out the swimming pool we found!"

"Swimming pool?! This deep?!" he wondered.

A crafty gleam grew in Hiei's eyes as he exchanged a glance with his silver-haired friend. "Yeah, we thought it was weird as first too, but then we jumped in and discovered the water was great! Come on down!" He splashed Kurama again and got an answering splash accompanied by a squeal in return.

The two began chasing each other around, splashing and yelling at the tops of their lungs. Kuwabara, being as naive as he was, yelled, "Hey! Wait for me!" and jumped in too.

Smirking at each other as the third little boy entered the water, the demons watched as a fountain of glistening droplets were sprayed upwards, coating the walls even more with their shining wetness. The moss creeping over the aged stones sparkled in the ever-shifting sunlight and the tree branches overhead waved gently in the wind.

"Yay!" he cried and splashed the other two.

After a few minutes though, Kurama said, "I'm tired of playing in the swimming pool, I wanna go get ice cream!"

"Ok," Hiei answered, going right along with his best friend.

Kuwabara stood up, glanced at the walls and asked the very same question they themselves had been asking only about half an hour ago. "How do we get out?"

"Well…it's like this," Hiei started. "You crouch down and let us use your back like a stepstool."

"Then, when we get out, we'll toss down a tree branch and pull you out too," Kurama finished, his eyes glittering with suppressed amusement.

"Sure," Kuwabara answered, happy to comply. Kneeling down in the water, he offered his back and felt the weight of both his demon friends climbing out. Once they were done, he arose once more and looked up at the ring of sunlight overhead, waiting for his tree branch.

But nothing came.

"Guys?!" he shouted, voice echoing strangely in the hollowed out circle. "Guys! What's going on?! I wanna get out!"

Two little head poked over the sides and grinned down at him. "We're sorry Kuwabara, but we just can't seem to find a tree branch long enough," Kurama told him, sounding anything but apologetic.

"Looks like you'll have to find your own way out," Hiei snickered as the pair walked off.

"Wait! You guys! Come baaaaaaack!!!" the trapped boy wailed.

Laughing, the troublemakers ignored his cries and high-fived each other. Still giggling, they made their way back to their mothers, poking and tripping each other all the way.

The three women were still seated on their bench, talking as though this were the last time they would ever be allowed to speak. Simultaneously tugging on their mothers' legs, they begged in unison for ice cream.

"All right, all right," Hiei's mother sighed. "Let's go get some ice cream. It is rather hot out here today."

Looking suspiciously at her son and his friend, Kurama's mother noticed their dripping state of being and was just about to question them about it when Kuwabara's mother suddenly asked, "Where's Kuwabara?"

Glancing surreptitiously at the other, each said, "I don't know," with perfect angelic clarity.

But the twin glares from their mothers proved them to be unconvinced. "He's um…still at the…" Kurama trailed off.

"Still where?" Kuwabara's mother asked, crouching down in front of the silver fox and his fire demon friend.

"At the swimming pool," Hiei muttered reluctantly.

"Swimming pool?" All three mothers echoed each other, their voice confused and mystified.

"Yeah, we found a swimming pool over on the other side of the park," Kurama elaborated. "And we went swimming and well-"

But he was cut off when Hiei's mother suddenly blurted out," They can't mean that old well over there, can they?!"

The women exchanged identical glances and raced off towards the other side of the park.

"I think now's a good time to go hide," Hiei said and received an answered nod from Kurama as the two tore off across the park, heading to their tree house in the back of their yards. But to no avail; for Kurama's mother had noticed where her son and Hiei were headed and had followed them. Now she grabbed a fistful of Hiei's hair and one of Kurama's tails, holding them both in place.

Their feet still ran and kicked, but they went nowhere. "Lemme go!!!" they shouted, once again in unison.

"No way," she said in a firm voice, hoisting the miniature demons under her arms. "You're coming with me."

And a few minutes later, she had taken them to the edge of the well where Kuwabara and the other two mothers now stood. "_Dang, they got him out_," Kurama whispered to Hiei.

"_I think-_" But Kurama didn't get to hear what Hiei thought because it was at that moment that Kuwabara pointed an accusing pudgy finger at them. "Hi Kuwabara!" Kurama shouted cheerfully.

"Did you finally decide to stop swimming and come play with us?" Hiei asked innocently.

"You left me down there!!!" he shrieked, still pointing.

And a few minutes later, with their bottoms smarting for the second time in 3 days, Kurama and Hiei tore off down the playground, with Kuwabara chasing behind yelling, "I'll get you!!! You just wait!"

They exchanged smirks once more and both had that spark of mischief in their eyes that said they were coming up with another plan to fool Kuwabara.

The sun shone down brightly as the two toddlers raced towards their tree house. It dimmed momentarily as a fluffy white cloud passed in front of it, then brightened and the world was as it should be.

"See ya tomorrow Kuwabara-kun!"

Author's Note: Well, what do you think of the mini-series so far? ^.^ Reviews would be much appreciated, as would ideas for the next fic. (As you can probably tell, I am loosely basing them on fables and fairy tales) Thanks so much for reading!


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